Electric Water Heaters - Compact & Decentralised Solutions to Help You Save Energy

Every day more family houses, apartment buildings, and commercial spaces are using compact and decentralised electric hot water systems.

The reason usually is that they're trying to solve one of two common problems:

1. They have a tap that's far away from their main hot water system. This results in a lot of cold water runoff (going down the drain) before any hot water makes it out of the tap.
2. They're looking for a compact hot water solution because they just simply don't have the space for a bulky hot water tank (and they don't want the maintenance or the energy losses that come with them either).

So they choose a compact and easy to install electric hot water system. These compact water heaters can be conveniently installed extremely close to the location of where the hot water is used - and don't take up much space in cupboards or under benchtops.

And when the water heater is placed close to the off-take tap, it minimises the length of pipe required to deliver hot water to the outlet, so delivers hot water to the outlet faster - and importantly, without the usual water wastage we're all familiar with when waiting for hot water. Plus, heat energy losses from the usual hot water pipe runs are greatly reduced (i.e. when the water cools down in the pipe runs between tap uses).

There are two main types of decentralised electric water heaters:

Instantaneous Water Heaters

Heat the water instantly to the desired temperature.

- Great for medium sized hot water usage with multiple taps or draw-off points - for example a shower and a sink.

- Very compact, reliable, and maintenance free.

- Usually require a dedicated electrical circuit - so best installed in new buildings, or where replacing existing instantaneous electric hot water units.

- Available in single or three phase.

Compact Storage Heaters

- Store 5, 10 or 15L of water in a tiny tank under your bench or sink.

- Best used for only a single draw-off point, e.g. under your kitchen sink, or for a tap that is very far away from the main hot water system.

- Can be powered from a standard power point (GPO) - so can be easily installed in existing buildings or new buildings.

- Available in mains-pressure models (use your own tap), or open-vented models (special tap comes with the installation kit and must be used). The open-vented models have the advantage of not requiring a drain point next to the unit for a pressure relief valve.

- Available in single phase only.

EnergyLabs offers you ready to go installation kits - making it easy for you to install and get your hot water heater up and running:

INSTANTANEOUS

SMALL instantaneous hot water heaters are suitable for up to 1 bathroom.

MEDIUM instantaneous hot water heaters are suitable for up to 1 - 2 bathrooms.

LARGE instantaneous hot water heaters are suitable for up to 2 bathrooms.

COMPACT STORAGE

SMALL mains pressure compact water storage heaters are suitable for 1 outlet (SHC type).

MEDIUM mains pressure compact water storage heaters are suitable for 2 outlets (SHC type).

SMALL & MEDIUM open vented compact water storage heaters are suitable only for 1 outlet (SNU/SNE type - special outlet tap that is included in the installation kit)